Stress is an inside Job

I’m aware of how prevalent and stifling anxiety issues are today, even within the church, so I thought I’d share some truths from scripture that we can declare over ourselves.

It is my firm belief that we have more control or influence over the severity of mental suffering than we think we do. Not that we can completely eliminate the issues in our own strength, but as the guardians of our own minds, we can make conscious decisions about what thoughts or feelings we will entertain. We can choose to be proactive with our minds and ask the Lord to do the rest.

Let’s start with this section in Philippians 3, verses 7 though 10.

“7 But whatever was gain to me I count as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 More than that, I count all things as loss compared to the surpassing excellence of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God on the basis of faith.

10 I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to Him in His death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

So right away, we can see that any thing we had prior to the Lord or apart form the Lord, we can count it as loss or gone away from us. That includes physical illness or issues, addiction, fear, and mental illness. Under the blood of Jesus sacrifice that we now live with, we have access to a new reality where those issues do not have authority to affect us.

This can mean that when we receive Christ and renew our minds to his nature and his authority, sometimes issues like anxiety will quickly be alleviated. From my experience, seeking relief through prayer and intimacy with the Lord like this does happen, but it can depend on how the individual is willing to yield to the Lord. Other times, because of the root of our anxieties, the Lord will deal with the main issue and then the anxiety will be relieved as a secondary effect.

Going forward, it’s important to agree with the reality that anxiety as being antithetical to one of the fruits of the spirit, peace, and therefore it cannot gain access to a believers heart or mind. That is unless we allow it in.

Jesus has all authority over anxiety, so that means we have authority over anxiety. In the situations of daily life or even out of the ordinary events, we decide whether to allow anxiety in to the situation. That doesn’t mean we won’t react in emotion to things that crop up, but we need to know that we have the ability to declare and maintain peace in everything. Whether it’s car problems, dealing with work deadlines, or raising kids, peace will be evident in our lives.